Match of the Day

Mari got home from the battle after the paralytic had worn off. As she did, she silently walked past her drunk father in a dirty living room, who was snoring on a couch in front of a TV showing a late-night variety show. She was still aching from the battle she had with Ruka, and as such, she walked into her room and almost immediately collapsed onto the bed in exhaustion. She sighed, “I can’t believe she got the better of me.”

She then heard her father stir from the living room, having finally noticed that she had gotten home. “Mari… Hey, Mari…”

Not in the mood to deal with him, she replied, “Yes, Dad?”

“What time is it?”

“It’s ten in the evening.”

“You got home this late again?” She could hear him get up from his chair and begin to walk over. “Where the fuck are you going every night?! Are you seeing a boy or something?!”

“No, I’m not,” she denied as she rolled over and saw him walk into her room. “I swear, I’m not, Dad.”

“You know how I can be late at night, Mari.” He then burped, covering his mouth as he did so. “You can’t keep coming home like this every fucking night.”

Seeing the hypocrisy in his statement given that he usually came home drunk every night and then drank more after coming home, she sighed and told him, “I’m sorry, Dad. I know you like to come home late, too.”

“Come on,” he told her. “You know I got work and shit. The boss has us all drink with him a lot of nights, and you know I like to party with some ladies.”

“Yes, yes, I know. We’ve been over this. I see them when you bring them home.”

“Yeah, you get it.”

Mari then let slip, “You really shouldn’t be bringing random girls home, Dad.” As soon as the last word escaped her mouth, she covered it in shock, horrified that she had talked back to him in such a way. “Uh…”

“What was that?!” Her dad then got close to her, looking right in her eyes and whispering, “What did you say, Mari?”

Smelling his alcohol-tinted breath, she replied, “No- Nothing…”

Repeating himself, he again whispered, “What did you say?”

“Nothing…”

Now raising his voice to a yell, he demanded, “That’s a fucking lie! Tell me what you just fucking said! Did you talk back to me or not?!”

Mari yelled back with a hint of fear in her voice, “I told you to stop bringing random girls home!”

“So you did talk back to me, didn’t you?!”

“I did! I did! Please, not now! Don’t do this to me now! Any other night, but not now!”

“Too late,” her father replied before slapping her across the face, causing her to start crying. “You shouldn’t have talked back to me like that! I am a grown man, Mari, and I can do what I God damn please with any woman who wants me! Now good night!” He then slammed the door shut to her room and returned to his chair.

Mari laid down on her bed, tears falling down her face as she rubbed her reddened right cheek and thought about Ruka’s words. She whispered, “Kishio… How can you say that when men act like this to us…?”

…

Close to midnight, Yoshiro and Ruka were walking around Yokosuka by themselves in casual clothes. The two were talking about the fight that the latter had with Mari, although Ruka held back on telling him the more personal details surrounding it. “So you didn’t kill her? Why not?”

“She told me some things that helped me understand more of why she does what she does,” Ruka told him. “I have to admit, I do have some sympathy for her. That said, I told her she couldn’t deal with her problems like this. I warned her that if she ever threatened you, I would show her no mercy the next time we met.”

“Problems… What kind of problems, Ruka?”

Ruka did not want to divulge what she had told Mari to him, clearly uncomfortable with doing so, but she also knew that she could not just refuse to answer his question. “I could tell him about what Tsuda said to me,” she thought to herself. “But will he ask about why I care so much? Screw it, he needs some kind of explanation so he won’t go blabbering off to Hana about it.” She explained to him, “She told me some pretty awful things about the men in her life. I won’t divulge everything to you, but it’s pretty bad. I get why she doesn’t like boys or men, but even so, I told her that what she was doing was still wrong.”

Yoshiro, thinking back to what Hideo had done to Hana three years ago, immediately knew the gravity of what Ruka was describing. “Oh… I see…”

Ruka then warned him, “Just to give you a heads up, there are things about me that not even Hana knows, much less you, and I don’t feel like telling the whole world about them. It may or may not explain why I’m not giving you more details about the fight with Tsuda. It’s not because of you personally. It’s me.”

Yoshiro then stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, concerned about what Ruka had told her. “Ruka, what are you talking about? Did something happen to you like with Hana-senpai and that Yakuza boss?”

Ruka also stopped, turning around and firmly telling him, “I told you, I don’t really want to tell the whole world about what happened in my past. What I can tell you is that I had a pretty fucked up life, Yoshiro. I lost my parents at a young age, and my grandfather was not the best guardian by any means. There’s a reason I live alone, and that’s all I’m going to say.” She then closed her eyes and held her ring hand out, transforming in a flash of light before pulling out her sword.

“Woah,” Yoshiro said as he backed up, thinking Ruka was about to attack him. “What the Hell?!”

“Calm down,” she assured him. “I’m not going to attack you. I merely transformed so I could explain some things to you better. It concerns my sword.”

“Well… What about it? Why do you need to show me it? It’s not like I haven’t seen it a hundred times, after all.”

“Because for a while,” she explained as she held her sword close to her. “My sword was my closest companion. Sure, over time, I had to get new swords and old ones shattered or got chipped, but no matter what, it always brought me comfort. Even when I was at my loneliest, it was always there… And then I found you.”

“Me?”

“The Fox Knights as a whole. I know we don’t always get along, but I truly cherish you and everyone else. I consider you as not only my comrade in battle, but also as my friend.” She smiled at him, sheathing her sword and telling him, “No matter how much we may squabble, I care about you.”

“I can tell she truly means that,” Yoshiro thought to himself. “It’s in her voice. She’s not bullshitting me… And honestly, I care about her, too.” He nodded and said to her, “You’re my friend, too, Ruka.”

“I figured as much.” Then, they both heard the phones ring with an alert, and as Ruka looked at the message she had received, she chuckled, “Looks like I made the right call getting transformed early. Let’s go.”

…

About seven minutes later, Ruka and Yoshiro arrived at the scene of a magical beast attack. A car had been smashed and was actively burning as a woman lay dead on the street, her body torn in two and her blood spilt on the pavement. As horrified onlookers watched, Ruka asked one of them, “Where did it go?! Did any of you see the attack?!”

“It went that way,” replied an old man, who pointed down the street. Sure enough, they all then heard a loud roar from the direction the old man pointed in. “That’s it! That’s the monster that attacked!”

Then, as they all watched, the magical beast, a Class Three, charged at the crowd and smashed into a car parked on the street, causing almost all of them to run away as Ruka and Yoshiro stood in front of the woman’s body and readied their swords. Yoshiro turned to his partner and asked her, “Are you ready?”

“Of course,” she replied before she charged forward at the beast, who bore a rather disjointed body and an oddly-shaped head. Its bones creaked and moaned with every motion it made as it ran forward. When the two collided, Ruka slashed into its right foreleg, causing a torrent of blood to gush from a severed artery. The beast screamed in response, letting out a sound that could only be described as glitchy and computer-like. It then bent down and tried to bite Ruka, who dodged it and slashed across its face.

Yoshiro ran over, admonishing Ruka for just bolting at the beast. “Ruka, hold on! We can’t just blindly charge at it!” The beast roared at Yoshiro next as its nose bled before rushing past Ruka to swipe at him with its uninjured left foreleg. Yoshiro dodged the attack and slashed at its foot, causing it to scream in pain again as he yelled to Ruka, “What the Hell is that noise it’s making?!”

“I don’t know,” she shouted back. “It’s fucking weird! It sounds like a computer glitching out!” Then, the beast let out its loudest scream yet, causing both Ruka and Yoshiro to stop and cover their ears in pain as the sound reverberated in their heads. “Agh, shit! Too loud! Too loud!”

When the screaming stopped, both of them were temporarily deafened. As Yoshiro tried to shout for Ruka, he could barely hear himself speak as the beast then whipped her with its tail, sending her back several feet and tearing into her uniform. “…Ruka! Ruka! Ruka!”

Ruka got up from the street, grabbing a hold of her sword once more while she bled from a cut to her upper abdomen and chest caused by the beast’s tail striking her and going through her shirt. She then charged at the beast, yelling at it as she did and landing a hard blow against its neck, cutting into it but not able to cut all the way through due to how tough the beast’s body was. Just before the beast could bite down on her, she pulled her sword out and jumped out of the way just as Yoshiro swooped in and completely cut off the beast’s left foreleg, causing it to fall over.

His hearing restored, Yoshiro turned to Ruka and asked her, “Hey, are you okay? That bastard hit you pretty hard!”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Did you get its leg?”

“Yep! This should be easier now!”

“Excellent.” Ruka then ran forward and jumped up before sinking her sword deep into the beast’s head, impaling it through its brain and finally killing it before it had a chance to stop her. As the sword sank deeper into its body, blood slowly oozed from the wound before she then ripped the sword out, causing a torrent of the red liquid to spew from the now-open wound. She quickly jumped out of the way of the deluge and back onto the ground, sheathing her sword as Yoshiro pulled out his phone to call the Agency and begin documentation. As he did, she asked him, “Hey, are you alright? That thing screamed pretty loud, and my ears are still ringing a bit.”

“My ears are, too,” he replied as he dialed the number for the Yokosuka Branch Office. “Hang on, I’ll call it in and make the report.”

“Fine by me.” Ruka then heard the sound of crying and looked around, trying to figure out where it was coming from. She then scanned the sidewalk and found that a young girl of elementary school age was shaking and visibly sobbing, clearly terrified by what she had seen and all by herself. Feeling bad, Ruka walked over to the girl with a warm smile, asking her, “Little girl, are you okay?”

The girl stammered out, “Is- Is that monster- Is he dead?”

“He’s dead,” she assured her. “He will not be able to hurt you anymore.”

“It was really scary… It was chasing after me…” The girl then began to cry again, traumatized by the magical beast’s attack.

Ruka gently held the girl’s hand and told her in a soothing voice, “You do not have to be afraid. We are here to protect you. Now, do you know where your parents are?”

“They’re home,” the girl replied through her tears. “I was on my own.”

Ruka then pulled out a small unstained cloth from a small bag on her waist belt holding up her skirt and gently wiped away the girl’s tears. “There, there, I will be right here. Do you know your phone number?” The girl then shook her head. “Do your parents know this happened?” The girl once again shook her head. “Okay. Me and my friend Yoshiro can bring you home. Can you show us where you live?”

“Yes,” the girl replied, nodding her head while doing so.

Ruka then turned around and told Yoshiro, “Make it quick. We’re gonna bring this little girl back home to her parents. She’s scared out of her mind and crying.”

Yoshiro looked over and saw Ruka standing with the girl, asking her, “We can’t contact her parents?”

“She doesn’t know her home phone number.” She then turned back around to talk to the girl more, telling her, “You know what magical girls are, right? Have you seen them on TV?”

“Ye- Yeah…”

“Well, me and Yoshiro are something similar,” Ruka explained with a smile as she showed her her transformation ring. “We transform into these forms to fight those monsters you saw. It is dangerous, but we do it to help people.”

As Ruka and the girl continued to talk, Yoshiro looked on and thought to himself, “I’m still amazed with how good with kids she is compared to how she fights. It’s like I’m looking at two different people sometimes. You know, a girl who’s friendly and caring towards children is pretty hot…” Yoshiro then realized what he was about to think regarding Ruka and shook his head. “Wait, what the fuck? Did I just call Kishio hot? Really? Come on, Yoshiro, do better. Besides, your heart is set on Hana-senpai… It has to be, right?”

…

About twenty minutes later, Ruka and Yoshiro bowed to the parents of the little girl as they returned her to her apartment, having transformed back into their civilian clothes and given a cover story about having found her when she got lost. The mom of the girl said to the two of them, “We can’t thank you enough. We were so worried when our daughter was late, especially with that monster attack or whatever downtown. We were scared she was caught up in it.”

“We were worried, too,” Ruka replied in her more formal voice. “We saw her near it and asked if she needed help since she was crying.”

“And you two are only high schoolers,” her father then said. “You both should be very proud of yourselves. Not a lot of people your age would take responsibility like that these days.”

“Oh, it is nothing,” Ruka replied with a chuckle, downplaying her and Yoshiro’s actions. “We only did what we thought was right. I would not say we are heroes. You are too kind, really.”

“Thank you again for helping her,” the mother then said before shutting the door. “Have a wonderful night, you two.”

“Farewell,” Ruka said as she bowed. Once the door was shut, she turned around and noticed Yoshiro staring at her with a look of confusion. “…What the Hell are you looking at?”

“I’ve known you for three years and yet I still don’t get you,” he said as the two of them walked to the elevator. “How are you so abrasive and impolite in your whine around us or in combat and yet speak so formally to others so easily? Does it come naturally, Ruka?”

“You’re just asking this now?” Ruka then hit the button to call the elevator to the fifth floor of the building they were on. “I’ve told you guys before. Being raised by an upper class father and a working class mother left me with the ability to switch my tone of voice so easily. For the first eight years of my life, I heard my parents speak in varying degrees of politeness all the time.”

When the door opened, both of them stepped inside. Yoshiro asked her as he pressed the button for the first floor, “I’m still in disbelief at how easy it is for you. There are times I have to remind myself to speak as formally as you did to that girl’s parents.”

“I can’t really give any tips on how to do that. It just comes naturally.” She then leaned against the back wall of the elevator before arching her back and stretching her arms a bit. “You know, in a way, I like hearing myself switch between the different forms of politeness.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because it reminds me my parents are still with me in spirit, even if they’re dead.”

After this comment, the elevator grew silent, both of them remaining still as it made its way down and eventually reached the first floor. When the door opened, Yoshiro stepped out first, followed by Ruka. As they walked out, he said to her, “You know, with what we were talking about earlier… Uh… You can tell me things that you don’t want anyone else to know about. I won’t go blabbering off to the others about what you say to me. Any secrets you tell me are safe with me, Ruka.”

“I see,” she replied. “Well, I don’t know if you’re at the same level as, say, Hana, but… Any secrets you tell me, I’ll keep safe, too.”

Yoshiro smiled. “Thanks. I really appreciate that, actually. No bullshit.”

“So, um… Do you want to walk home together? I live the closest to here compared to you.”

With a slight blush at the thought of doing so, Yoshiro replied, “Oh, uh, sure.”

As the two walked together in the dark of the night, Ruka asked him, “Your mom won’t be mad that you’re out this late, right?”

“Come on. She knows all about what I do. It’s kinda hard to keep that a secret when you’ve been shot before.”

“Fair enough. Come to think of it, I think me, you, and Hana are the only ones in the Fox Knights whose parents are fully aware of what we do, and Hana’s the only one who has a full set of parents who know what she does.”

“I know for a fact Ikezawa-san’s parents don’t know, nor does her little brother. Fujimori-senpai’s mother doesn’t know, and her father isn’t even in the fucking picture, let alone aware of what she does. I think Murata-senpai’s father knows to some extent, but I doubt her mother knows. Miyamura-senpai’s parents don’t have a clue.”

“Frankly,” Ruka added in regards to Kumiko. “I think Kumiko-kun’s mother would flip the fuck out if she found out her daughter she refuses to acknowledge as a daughter was basically a magical girl. She’d probably get her panties in a bunch about her quote-unquote ‘son’ dressing up and fighting like Sailor Moon or a Pretty Cure. Perhaps it’s for the best that she isn’t aware.” She then felt her phone vibrate with a text and checked it, finding it was from Tomoyo. “Hang on, I gotta give Yamanaka-san a call.”

“Which one?”

“Yamanaka Tomoyo.” She then selected Tomoyo in her contacts list to call her.

Tomoyo answered on her cellphone within Ruka’s apartment, “Hello?”

“You asked me to call you. What’s up?”

Tomoyo somewhat timidly asked her, “Well, uh, where are you? It’s getting pretty late.”

“Me and Yoshiro had a battle that ran a bit late. We also helped bring a little girl home. I’ll be home in about ten or fifteen minutes.”

…

May 16, 2026

Ruka and Yoshiro were participating in a fencing match that was being held at Samejima High School, with the rest of the Fox Knights watching from the stands. As two different male fencers were sparring off against each other, Hana checked her phone, which had a reminder to report to the girls’ locker room to get changed for a kendo match that was to be held after fencing had concluded. As she did, Sayaka asked her, “Miyashita-san, do you know when Kishio-san and Arikawa-kun are coming out?”

“I don’t know off the top of my head,” she replied to her. “The last boys’ fencing match is happening after this, so I assume Yoshiro-kun will be in that one. There’s only three girls’ matches compared to the seven boys’ matches, but I don’t know which one Ruka will be in.”

Meanwhile, Yoko was sitting next to Tenko and also texting her boyfriend, who was away at a soccer game. As she typed away, Tenko asked her, “How’s Yamanaka-senpai doing at his game?”

“Our team is up by a point. The score is one to zero.”

Confused, she asked her, “That’s it? Isn’t it already halftime?”

“Soccer doesn’t see a lot of scoring compared to other sports,” Yoko replied. “Some games end zero to zero, even. Many times, we win by only a single point compared to the other school we’re playing. This isn’t like baseball.”

Then, the bout they were watching ended, and as the small arena clapped and cheered for the victor, Yoshiro got ready on the sidelines. Ruka patted him on the shoulder, surprising him. “Huh?”

“Good luck out there,” she told him. “This guy is apparently one of the best fencers they got. I’m shocked they had a rookie like you go up against him.”

“I’m not exactly a rookie,” he pointed out to her. “I know how to handle a sword.”

“You know what I mean. Anyway, get out there and kick ass, Yoshiro.”

Yoshiro nodded and put his helmet on before grabbing a foil and heading out to the playing mat. As he did, a second-year boy from the school they were playing, who was the aforementioned ‘one of the best,’ also walked out, the two standing across from each other as the referee stepped into position. “En garde.” Both of the players then got into their starting positions. “Prêt?” Both players nodded. “Allez!”

Yoshiro quickly found himself on the defensive as soon as the bout began, being driven back by his opponent as he dodged two attacks. “Damn,” he thought to himself. “Kishio wasn’t kidding with this guy!”

Then, in just a few more seconds, his opponent scored a hit on him, prompting the referee to declare, “Attaque, touche! One point to Takami-san.” Both Yoshiro and his opponent then went back to their respective sides of the playing field and got ready for the next part of the bout. “En garde. Prêt? Allez!”

This time, Yoshiro managed to more successfully block his opponent, ensuring that this round would last even just a little bit longer than the first. Yoshiro managed to then score a hit on his opponent, prompting him to mentally cheer, “There we go!”

“Attaque, non touché! Hors cible!”

A confused Yoshiro thought, “Huh? It didn’t count? What the Hell?”

Ruka sighed from the sidelines, saying to herself, “He went outside the target boundary for the foil. Damn it, Yoshiro.”

”Return to your starting positions, please,” said the referee to both fencers. Once they did as asked, he began the third round with, “En garde. Prêt? Allez!”

Determined to strike in the right place, Yoshiro focused all of his energy on aiming for his opponent’s torso as he realized how he screwed up. “Now I see,” he thought to himself. “I hit his arm instead of his chest. Well, this time I won’t miss!” He then managed to score a good hit, his foil touching his opponent’s upper chest. “Aha!”

“Attaque, touché! One point to Arikawa-san!”

Ruka clapped as the crowd cheered, calling out, “There you go, Yoshiro!”

”Return to your starting positions, please.” Once both fencers did as instructed, the referee began the fourth round. “En garde. Prêt? Allez!”

Yoshiro dashed forward, intending to end this round as quickly as he could. However, he was forced to back off by a well-timed block from his opponent, after which he had to block a counterattack from him. Fearing he was about to lose, he thrusted the foil forward, hoping he was going to hit something. Sure enough, as he did, his surprised opponent gasped, “Huh?”

The referee then declared to the joy of the crowd, “Attaque, touché! One point to Arikawa-san! Arikawa-san wins!”

After the two took off their helmets, they bowed before shaking each other’s hands. Yoshiro smiled as he returned to his team, with Ruka giving him a hi-five. “Great job out there.”

“Thank you,” he replied to her as he set his foil down. “Are you next?”

“Yeah,” she replied as she grabbed Yoshiro’s foil off of a bench and then put her helmet on. “I’m up first for the three girls’ matches.”

In the stands, the rest of the Fox Knights clapped and cheered for Yoshiro. Tenko in particular yelled, “Great job, Arikawa-kun! You were awesome out there!”

Hana smiled, proud of her second-in-command’s work, before she felt her cellphone vibrate with a text. She checked it and sighed, realizing it was a group chat from the kendo team. She got up from her seat and told the others, “I have to go meet with the rest of the kendo team. I’ll have to miss Ruka’s match. My apologies.”

As she left the stands, Ruka noticed her and waved to call her over. “Hana! Hana!”

Hana walked over to her and explained, “I have to meet with the kendo team. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she assured her. “I’ll be right here. When you go out with the rest of your team, I’ll be watching.”

…

A few minutes later, Ruka and her opponent, another third-year who had built up a reputation as a strong and skilled fencer for her team, stood at opposite ends of the playing field. The two bowed to each other before putting on their masks and preparing themselves for the match. The referee held up his hand and declared, “En garde!” Both Ruka and her opponent got into fencing stances. “Prêt?” The two girls nodded. “Allez!”

Almost immediately, Ruka dashed forward and blocked a swipe from her opponent before quickly landing a blow to her abdomen, a fast and decisive end to the first bout of the match. The crowd cheered for Ruka, with Kumiko shouting from the stands, “Awesome job, Ruka-kun!”

The referee declared, “Attaque, touché! One point to Kishio-san!” Ruka and her opponent then got back into position for the second bout. The referee then began the bout with, “En garde! Prêt? Allez!” Again, Ruka quickly ended the bout in a matter of seconds with a well-timed strike to her opponent’s upper chest, moving almost on auto-pilot as she did so. “Attaque, touché! One point to Kishio-san! Kishio-san wins!”

Yoshiro remarked in amazement, “Wow, she wasn’t kidding about her abilities. That girl she’s up against is the other school’s best female fencer.”

One of his teammates then asked him, “And you said Kishio-san hasn’t done fencing in a while, right?”

“Yeah. She wasn’t part of a team in middle school, nor was she on our school’s team last year.”

Ruka and her opponent bowed and shook hands after taking their masks off before she went back to Samejima’s team. Several members of the team hi-fived her as she said to them with a smile, “Thank you, thank you.”

Yoshiro said to her, “You were amazing out there, Kishio! You ended that match in less than a minute, and she’s one of the best female fencers among all the high schools in Yokosuka.”

“I know who she is,” she explained. “Indeed, she’s one of the best, but sometimes, you just have a bad day.”